“I understand the year 2009 has been announced as the EU Year of Creativity. I hope this is going to include creative thinking and not just the arts.
I have offered to give a free seminar in Brussels to EU personnel in order to indicate what can be done about ‘idea creativity’. I also intend to set up a Palace of Thinking which would hold periodic meetings to generate new ideas on specific subjects. This Palace would be in Malta, if the government can make available a suitable palace. Otherwise, in whichever country offered a suitable Palace.”
Do you want to learn the de Bono Thinking Methods? Learn why Six Thinking Hats and Lateral Thinking for business have become global business improvement techaniques; for full de Bono training workshop details go to: http://www.indigobusiness.co.uk/workshops/index.php
Because we often consider ‘thinking’ to be problem solving we do not think much about matters which are not problems. If there is a wide open road ahead of us we do not stop to consider the side roads. This is what I call ‘blocked by openness’. Many things continue because they are reasonably satisfactory so we never think any more about them. A classic example is democracy which is full of faults and limitations but can never be challenged. I can think of at least four ways in which democracy could be greatly improved.
Whose business is it to think about things which are not problems? EDWARD DE BONO - September 2008.
Want to create a Thinking Manager in your company? Call our consulting team on +44 (0)20 7924 8760 for full details about the innovation, evaluation, communication and activation of ideas and change in your organisation, or review Dr Edward de Bono’s videos at www.indigobusiness.co.uk
I have recently had serious meetings both in London and Johannesburg with people concerned with youth crime. There are two things which everyone needs. They are ’significance’ and ‘achievement’.
In today’s world the only way a youngster can get these is through crime. There is the significance of belonging to a gang or showing off to your peers. There is the immediate achievement of crime: stolen goods, a graffiti, a broken window. There is very little opportunity for positive achievement. Schoolwork is not enough. Sport is not enough. Learning to play tennis in the hope that one day you might win at Wimbledon is too remote. There is a need for achievement as immediate as that of crime.
If you spend a lot of time thinking about things in a creative way then the time is not wasted even if specific ideas are not used. You build up in your mind a reservoir of concepts and possibilities that can then be applied to different situations. It is therefore important to verbalize concepts as they come about. This makes the concept more tangible and hence more accessible in the future.
The two points of difference between people who seem to be creative and those who do not are: a willingness to seek to be creative and a reservoir of varied concepts that can be tried out. Set yourself a creative task. Then note the concepts that are generated even if you do not succeed with a great idea. Try: “traffic regulation without traffic lights.”Edward de Bono
WANT TO ATTEND A DE BONO WORKSHOP? We recognise that in these globally tough times, you may have a restricted training budget. So we have created http://www.indigoearly.co.uk/ - an exclusive demand management booking system that means you can get up to 75% off our world renowned workshops, providing you book early enough. Call us on 020 7924 8760 for more details.
BlogMarks
Furl
Newsvine
Rojo
Email
If you like this then please subscribe to the